PS4 NPL NSW Men’s 1 Round 4 Review

EASTER wasn’t kind in terms of the weather, as rain made a mess of the round four fixture list.

There was no football on Saturday and with no games scheduled on Sunday, it was left to Friday and Monday to provide the football fix over the long weekend.

ROUND 4 REVIEW

Manly United 2-1 Blacktown Spartans, at Cromer Park

Manly United recorded their first win of the season, beating Blacktown Spartans on Good Friday.

It was a decent performance from Paul Dee’s side, who will take plenty of confidence after nailing their first mark in the W column.

Precocious youngster Daniel Saric gave Manly the lead in the first half, one which was doubled in the second by Chris Payne.

Mitchell Long pulled one back for the visitors, but it was to no avail.

APIA Leichhardt Tigers 2-2 Sydney Olympic, at Lambert Park

APIA hosted Sydney Olympic on Easter Monday, and the two put on a show, sharing four goals between them in a fixture that came to life in the second half.

Olympic started brightly and took the lead when Go Shirai fired a superb goal past Ryan Norval.

But APIA are made of stern stuff and they came out firing in the second half, equalising through Franco Parisi and then going 2-1 when Blake Powell found the back of the net after a goal mouth scramble.

Dimitri Hatzimouratis equalised nine minutes later and were it not for Norval, probably would have scored a winner.

Sydney United 58 FC 5-1 South Coast Wolves, at Sydney United Sports Centre

Sydney United 58 turned it on against Wolves, winning 5-1 after going a goal down at Edensor Park with the win dedicated to their midfield maestro Nick Stavroulakis. 

South Coast went ahead through Samuel Matthews, but that was soon cancelled out by Matthew Bilic.

A trio of penalties followed, two taken by Stjepan Paric, and one by Panny Nikas. 

Nikas, on his NPL debut for United, added the fifth late on with a header from a Robbie Mileski cross.

Rockdale City Suns 0-1 Marconi Stallions, at Ilinden Sports Centre

Rockdale City’s indifferent start to the season continued as they went down to strugglers Marconi Stallions at home.

David Talevski scored the only goal of the game, which was pushed back three quarters of an hour due to some torrential rain in Botany.

When the match eventually did start, it was Marconi who did the business, taking all three points.

N.B. Bonnyrigg White Eagles v Blacktown City, and Parramatta FC v Sutherland Sharks, were both postponed due to bad weather on Saturday evening.

– by Matthew Lopez, PS4 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s 1 Editor